On being ethnocentric

A few weeks ago I was attending a lecture (I do a seminar attached to the lecture so I get to sit in the audience and observe). The topic of the day was gender inequality. I find it incredible that in Canada it is an issue that needs to be discussed.  We as a nation and as individuals should be well past not only the debate but in fact have systems in place that ensure equality for all is the status quo. Unfortunately we are nowhere close to that goal.

The class started to talk about other countries. It is so much easier to find fault with others rather than ourselves. Specifically it was mentioned that in Bombay (Mumbai), India, of 8000 abortions performed after amniocentesis, 7900 were of female fetuses. And of course everyone was horrified. The class then moved to talking about China and the apparently well-known fact Chinese would prefer to have male children rather than female children.

I am becoming more cautious of believing something just because “everyone knows” that it is true. A few years ago I was picked up by a Mom, Dad and their two kids (one boy, one girl) who had just immigrated from China. It was not a long ride but I did ask them about having two children stating that I believed in China this was not allowed. They had a hard time understanding my question in part because there was a language issue (their English as poor as it was, was far better than my non-existent Mandarin). But the question made no sense to them. They indicated that in the city the number of children could be an issue but they were from a rural area and no one was concerned there that they had two kids or that one was a girl. This family may have been an exception. The number of children may have even been the reason why they immigrated but their comments did cause me to think about absolute statements

As I sat there in class I started to realize how ethnocentric we were all being. We were  saying that our culture’s values were superior to other cultures’ values. That is because we in Canada at least on paper, state that both sexes are of equal value, any culture (race?) that has a different set of practices must be wrong. Even if there are logical (to them) reasons why those culture values and practices are in place, we in the west, state that they are wrong to believe those things.

To be clear – I am a strong advocate for women around the world to be empowered to be in control of their own lives. Cultures or countries or faiths that deny women the right to education and opportunities need to change those policies. That is, in my mind, not negotiable. It needs to happen sooner than later. 

In a country of 1.3 billion people it is not surprising (in fact one could argue that it is responsible) that China limits the number of children born. While it may be repellant to many of us that boys are valued more than girls, both India and China have had over 3000 years of history that supports those values. Before we condemn other cultures and their values we need to remember that Europeans (and their descendants) have a long history of making moral judgments on other cultures only to realize 200 years later that they were wrong. We also need to remember that 80 odd years ago in Canada women who were of a visible minority or were from a First Nation were not allowed to vote. It was not until 1944 that women in Quebec were allowed to vote in provincial elections. We are far from perfect and it has taken us a long time to get even to here. And we live in one of the richest countries in the world with a variety of financial and personal choices.

So while I don’t agree with the attitude that women have less value than men, I do think that rather than condemning them as being some sort of barbarians that we attempt to understand how and why they make decisions. Maybe then we can figure out some way of growing up together so that everyone’s potential is maximized. And maybe before we spend too much energy finding fault with the rest of the world we could make sure that we are as perfect as we expect others to be.